Townsend: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave your motor and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain plus a full flush, done just where your car sits around Townsend, is normally what it needs if found before your motor runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds your motor — but plenty of current diesels seen about Townsend and Kingshill carry a second fluid as well. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas and cleans it.
There's a filler on each tank. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue normally goes in out of a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think what filler to use. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place in Townsend
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up together.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from your car, and running out means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Long Street, perhaps at Old Bell Hotel on the way home after work.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — but a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's the second factor: a new car.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, after begun, carries on. Dursley or the middle of Townsend: it takes the same few seconds in both.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Farfield or a forecourt in Townsend.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many motors say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Collecting a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Cam & Dursley? Check with whoever drove the car last before you set off, not once the light goes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
When the light goes on, wherever in Gloucestershire, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Drake Lane, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap does the trick — after you have located the filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Step five is out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Townsend?
Don't start your engine: that's where the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
The attendants at Texaco, Shell or any forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear when you ask. On your own drive in Townsend? Then the car remains put.
Already started? Pull over once it's safe, then switch off. Leave the M5 — under 3 miles out of Townsend — at the first exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Gloucester, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Townsend.
Our arrival around Townsend, and what takes place next
Anywhere the car has stopped, whether outside Dursley Church of England Primary Academy, beside The Priory or at home, our van comes to it. Which fluid was put in, the quantity, and whether it ran: our technicians ask because those answers decide both work and quote. You get that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Then that tank is drained and the fuel system purged thoroughly. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears out unaided, no matter how long it sits. A test is last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. Your engine is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs correctly, all before our technicians head off.
Unstarted cars mostly need a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Townsend
Townsend is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Gloucestershire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Townsend sits at an elevation of 79 metres, near the towns of Dursley and Gloucester, and is part of the wider South West region. Townsend is located approximately 13 miles from Gloucester and 96 miles from London, with nearby villages including Woodmancote and Highfields. Townsend has a population of around 3695 people, living in a variety of homes, predominantly semi-detached.
AdBlue drains around Townsend and across Gloucestershire
Townsend is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the towns around it, Woodmancote and Highfields among them, across the GL postcode area. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting GL11 4.
The car remains put. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Chantry Centre, a lay-by on the way to Dursley Recreation Ground, a drive. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Parish Church of St James the Great.
The short version for Townsend drivers
Before you tip, read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it stands, anywhere around Gloucestershire: keep the car off and call 0333 366 0103.